A Maryport poet and a Cockermouth music group were among the winners in the Cumbria Life Culture Awards 2017.

Maryport poet Tom Pickard clinched the Writer of the Year award and performed an extract from his book Winter Migrants at the ceremony at Theatre by the Lake, in Keswick.

Fun Live Aspirational Music Education, an orchestral project developed by students at Cockermouth School and supported by Cumbria Music Education Hub, won the Artistic Collaboration prize.

Among those who missed out were the Workington's Carnegie Theatre and Arts Centre in the Venue of the Year category, and Workington Amateur Operatic Society in the Amateur Society/Group of the Year award.

April’s Catbells Festival of Light, which saw hundreds of people take to the mountain at night to mark the first anniversary of the Nepal earthquake, lost out on the Event of the Year title while Cockermouth’s Castlegate House Gallery was beaten to the title of Art Gallery of the Year.

Keswick Choral Society has been in the running for Choir of the Year, while Ian Hare, former organist at the town’s Crosthwaite Church, was among those shortlisted for Musician of the Year.

Terry Abrahams, the man behind the documentary film Life of a Mountain: Blencathra, was beaten in the Photographer/Filmmaker of the Year section.

The awards were sponsored by the University of Cumbria and Lakes Culture, and supported by Arts Council England.

More than 100 entries were received across 15 categories and were judged by a 14-strong panel.